Zoe P. Strassfield

Events of May 18, 2012

Long-time readers of my blog may have noticed that I've slacked off a bit on my usual weekly posts. The reason for that has been that the month of May has been unexpectedly busy for me, between studying for (and taking) the final exams of...

Like most Boston University students, I'm always picking up the latest issue of our student-run newspaper, The Daily Free Press. My favorite regular feature is a humorous column called "Interrobang", asking how BU students would respond to a hypothetical topical scenario, such as "How would BU students compete...

While I'm incredibly sore that I couldn't be in New York today to see the Space Shuttle Enterprise arrive aboard NASA's carrier jet, living in Boston has allowed me to enjoy some first-rate experiences, from diving deep at the New England Aquarium to celebrating...

Events of April 7th and April 13th 2012

I'm aware some of you who read my post about Yuri's Night two weeks ago may have just read those dates and said something like:

"What gives? Yuri Gagarin's flight was April Twelfth, 1961! What do the Seventh and the...

Today, for the first time in a while, I was able to do something that's become one of my favorite parts of living in Boston -- walk down the Esplanade, across the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, and over to MIT for an Aero/Astro event! The trees along the riverfront were full...

Back in December, I wrote about Wright Brothers Day, an observance I considered to be sadly little-known, especially given the truly momentous nature of the event it celebrates. While the holiday that's the subject of this blog also celebrates an event of great historical significance, I am proud...

Events of March 24, 2012

It's probably no secret to anybody who's been reading my blog for a while, but I love museums. This is almost certainly a product of the fact that my mother -- then the curator of the Guild Hall art museum -- took me...

As I mentioned last week, I had a lot of space-related places that I wanted to visit over spring break, but because my parents still had work that week, I had to do them all in one day, which turned out to be the same day I heard...

Two weeks ago, when I was planning for my spring break, I listed a lot of places in the New York area that I hoped I'd be able to visit, hopefully with my family. When I got home, however, there was one little problem... nobody else was on...

I mentioned last week that I was spending most of the past two weeks occupied with midterms. What kept me going was the knowledge that on Wednesday, the day after my last midterm, Mars would be at its closest to the Earth all year. Hopefully, I'd get to...

I'm going to admit, I had a little trouble coming up with a topic for this week's post. I didn't really do anything exciting this week because I was too busy studying for my midterms to go sightseeing like last week, and I'm sure none of you are...

(Yes, the title of this article owes some inspiration to Mary Pope Osborn's Magic Tree House series...)

Over the long weekend last week, I experienced something very rare for a college student -- free time! After getting my computer science homework done early on Sunday morning, I had...

Events of February 14, 2012

"If you look, you'll surely see they're you and me.
Heroes are plain old people." -- Lionel Richie and Darrell Jones, "Heroes"

It was a cloudy winter 8 AM as I stood outside of my dorm shivering. It seemed like twenty cabs had gone...

Last week, I mentioned that I was working on creating "Solar System Buddies" (cute cartoon versions of the sun, moon and planets to color that feature information about our solar system) to give to kids who came to my astronomy club's public observing nights. While the clouds this...

Events of February 1, 2012

I snuck a look out the window of the old brownstone as the professor read my paper. The sky above the College of Arts and Sciences building had disappointingly clouded over. I groaned, mentally.

As it sometimes does, my brain suddenly and unexpectedly flipped...

I suppose I should preface this post by saying that by its very nature, it may make some people feel old. I apologize for that.

While coming back to Boston a few weeks ago after the holiday vacation, I passed time on the ferry ride across Long Island Sound by...

Events of January 23, 2012

Okay, today was definitely one of my busiest days since I arrived at Boston University. I found out a week ago that High School teams would be visiting MIT on the 23rd to take part in the Zero Robotics Championship, controlling robots aboard...

Events of January 18, 2012

I'm always on the lookout for space stuff, and I've found it in some pretty unusual places, like the space shuttle launch photo that was in a Prada sunglasses ad the last time I visited the optometrist. Over the holiday break, I saw an article...

I've seen the International Space Station pass overhead several times. The first time was in fall of 2007, when there was an article in Sky and Telescope magazine encouraging people to try to spot satellites in honor of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. I was...

There were a lot of things on my mind when I came home for Holiday Break a few days ago--being back in New York for the first time since August, seeing my dog Comet again, Christmas and all it entails, being done with finals, and having several weeks without homework...